Guide of Valencia

Charles IV and Ferdinand VII renounced their rights to the Crown of Spain in favor of Joseph Bonaparte. When this news reached Valencia it provoked protests among the people. Then Vicente Doménech, known as ‘the Palleter’, went to the market, came to the house where there was selling the sealed paper approved by the French Government and picking up a sheet and breaking it said: “A poor palleter declares war to Napoleon. Long live Ferdinand and death to the traitors”. On the following day the armed masses assaulted and took the citadel. On May 25 there was constituted the ‘Supreme Meeting of Government of the Kingdom of Valencia’. The revolution had triumphed.

After conquering the Principality of Catalonia, marshal Suchet prepared the assault on the Kingdom of Valencia. During the French occupation the city changed: on the site of the Royal Palace began works in the Garden of the Viveros, the almost disappeared Alameda was replanted and became the current Glorieta. As a result of the defeat of the French in Vitoria on 5 July 1813, Suchet evacuated Valencia and there was constituted a provincial government presided by Marqués de Dos Aguas.

On April 16 Ferdinand VII entered in Valencia where he received the same demonstrations of joy that everywhere and on May 4 in Valencia also secretly signed the decree that cancelled the Cadiz Constitution. The new archbishop Simon Lopez Garcia which took charge of the Diocese in 1824 restored the Inquisition with the name of Junta de la Fe. The Main Theater was inaugurated in 1832.